Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Summary

The United States and China are the world’s top two energy consumers and, as of 2010, the two largest economies. Consequently, they have a decisive role to play in the world’s clean energy future. Reviews of the bilateral relationship have identified renewable energy as one of the key areas in which the United States ought to “significantly enhance” its cooperation with China (Council on Foreign Relations, 2007), pointing out that the United States and China are likely to become far more active partners in developing low-carbon economies to help reduce the risks of climate change (Asia Society and Pew Center on Global Climate Change, 2009). Both countries are also motivated by related goals, namely diversified energy portfolios, job creation, energy security, and pollution reduction, making renewable energy development an important strategy with wide-ranging implications. Given the size of their energy markets, any substantial progress the two countries make in advancing use of renewable energy will provide global benefits, in terms of enhanced technological understanding, reduced costs through expanded deployment, and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to conventional generation from fossil fuels.

The United States and China face similar technical and economic constraints in terms of scaling up renewables’ share of power generation: with the exception of hydropower and some wind and geothermal, most renewable power generation is not presently cost-competitive with baseload rates based on coal-fired power; and geographically, concentrations of electricity demand and high-quality renewable energy resources are far apart. However, renewable power offers several advantages over conventional generation, including low emissions of air pollutants, low fuel costs, and in many cases relatively quick deployment. Moreover, technologies such as solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are well-suited to specific

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

segments of the power generation market, such as peak demand, when electricity rates are highest. Implementation, that is, deploying more renewable energy technologies, follows a distinct path in each country. Despite those differences in existing infrastructure and policy/regulatory frameworks, there are substantial areas where cooperation could be mutually beneficial.

Within this context, the U.S. National Academies, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), assembled expert committees to review renewable energy development and deployment in the two countries, to highlight prospects for collaboration throughout the research-to-deployment chain and to suggest strategies that would promote more rapid and economical attainment of renewable energy goals. The United States and China have been engaged in cooperation on renewable energy officially since 1979—this history of cooperation has laid the groundwork for the sustained, high-level cooperation called for in this report.

Instead of organizing their analysis by resource or generation technology (i.e., wind, solar, biomass), the committees elected to analyze the technical, policy, and market factors that will influence overall growth in the renewable power sector. At the same time, the committees observed lessons from one country that appear to have implications for the other—these are reflected in some of the committee’s recommendations. An important but sometimes overlooked aspect of the U.S.-Chinese bilateral relationship is that, through closer collaboration, each country greatly enhances its opportunities for organizational learning. This is particularly true for technological learning, because accelerated manufacturing and deployment of renewable power systems in one country can quickly have a global impact. Considering that renewable power generation is competing with well-established industries, harnessing knowledge on best practices in everything from resource characterization to research commercialization should help the sector become more competitive.

CURRENT STATUS OF RENEWABLE POWER DEVELOPMENT

Excluding conventional hydropower, renewables’ share of generation in both countries is quite small (less than 3 percent from non-hydro sources) in comparison to fossil-fuel power plants. Conventional hydropower is the predominant source of renewable power, and China still has abundant potential large-scale resources that might be developed. Massive solar and wind resources exist in remote regions of each country, but both the United States and China lack the large-scale transmission infrastructure to access these resources, and there is debate as to how much of these resources can and will be exploited cost efficiently. Biomass offers a substantial resource for direct power production and co-firing in coal power generation. Other resources, such as geothermal, are being exploited to provide some generation as well as other energy services (heating and cooling).

Table S-1 illustrates the relative contributions of various renewable power sources to total electrical generation in each country for 2009. In 2009 China

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

a Cumulative, reflecting installations that were completed and brought on-line by the end of 2009.

b Data is for grid-connected systems.

and the United States accounted for more than 25 percent of the 305 gigawatt (GW) worldwide installed capacity of non-hydro renewable power (REN 21, 2010). To put this in perspective, though, worldwide generation of all non-hydro renewable power in 2008 (EIA, 2010c) could have powered the United States for only seven weeks.

The past five years (2005–2009) have been a period of rapid growth in terms of installed capacity, particularly for wind turbines, and China and the United States are now global leaders in wind installations (Figure S-1). This can be misleading, however, because realistic indicators of progress must be measured in terms of Watt hours (Wh) generated, not merely GW of installed capacity, because capacity factors of variable-output renewable power technologies are lower than for fossil and nuclear energy or baseload renewable power sources such as biomass and geothermal energy.

China has made impressive strides to improve its manufacturing capability in wind turbines and solar PV systems, although the latter are almost exclusively being sold as exports. The United States has recently been the world’s top market for wind turbines, and a leading supplier of second-generation, thin-film PV materials. Much of the near-term growth in renewable power in both countries will be in wind installations, as well as some larger scale solar generation. Both countries can also harness renewable resources at smaller scales using modular technologies that are readily and rapidly distributed among population centers and, thus, generally more accessible by existing transmission and distribution systems. For example, the majority of PV capacity installed in the United States has been in installations less than 500 kW, and nearly half of that capacity has been installations ranging from 5-15 kW (NREL, 2010b).

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

The challenge in scaling up renewable systems in general is a function of (1) their costs compared to conventional generation, (2) their ability to be integrated into the grid, which may require new controls to optimize variable output from multiple distributed sources, and (3) the availability of cost-effective multiple-hour storage. There is potential for technological improvement in each of these areas, but continued progress will also depend on policy or financial incentives.

Growth in the U.S. and Chinese renewable energy sectors is taking place in the context of a transformation of their overall energy structures. In the United States, this is being driven by the desire to reduce GHG emissions, reduce dependence on foreign sources of energy, and replace aging infrastructure. China shares the first two concerns, but its main priority continues to be meeting a rapidly increasing demand for electricity, particularly in the industrial sector. As its service sector grows (as a share of the overall economy) and its population becomes more urban, these factors will in turn shape the country’s overall energy demand. It has taken 125 years to build today’s U.S. energy infrastructure. China’s infrastructure has developed much more rapidly, although it has been based on marginal improvements to the paradigm utilized in the United States and other industrialized countries. As both countries look ahead, there are certain opportunities to shift this trajectory in a way that will enable renewable power sources to come on line more quickly and increase their contribution to the overall energy portfolio.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

FINDINGS

The following sections detail the committees’ main findings and are organized according to chapter topics from the full report. The committees’ most critical findings are highlighted by bold text.

Renewable Resource Assessments

In both China and the United States, solar and wind resources offer substantially more total energy and power potential than other renewable resources. These other (non-hydroelectric) renewable resources can contribute significantly to the electrical energy mix in certain regions.

While the United States has assessed the technical potential for its renewable resources, with increasing confidence and high resolution, and is now focusing efforts on estimating economic potential (supply curves with cost of delivered resource), some of the Chinese resources have been only assessed at the inventory level, in many cases with low resolution. A reassessment ofChina’s wind resources using higher resolution wind resource data andhigher turbine hub heights could help to identify new wind developmentsites. A similar assessment in the United States led to a reevaluation ofwind resource potential in many states. The link between high-resolutionknowledge of the resource base and technology progress was demonstratedfor wind power, and similar efforts are needed in China. Areas where the United States could lend expertise include measurements of direct normal incidence radiation (for concentrating solar power [CSP] potential) and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) mapping.

Scenario modeling (combining geographic information systems with estimated economic resource assessments, renewable technology development with time, current and possible evolution of transmission infrastructure, and balancing costs) is becoming increasingly important for planning and rational development of both traditional and renewable energy resources. It requires the use of coupled models that enable exploration of a large number of scenarios and the consequences of their deployment. China and the United States can collaborate inthis area to identify ways to reduce implementation costs through integratedresource planning.

Biomass resource assessment collaborations among the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Chinese government, academia, and industry are ongoing for biofuels feedstock supply curve developments, but these conversion technologies are still under development. Some biopower technologies such as co-firing are the most cost effective and could be developed for appropriate regions of the country using residues if an efficient collection infrastructure is established. Mapping multiple layers of resources and infrastructure may facilitate co-development of biopower and biofuels and capitalize on the economic potential of biorefineries.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Technology Development

In the near term (to 2020), wind, PV, CSP, conventional geothermal, and some biopower technologies are technically ready for expanded and accelerated deployment. CSP has been proven at utility scale (much of the experience has been in the United States), and specific concerns such as water use should not overshadow the potential benefits of CSP, including lower costs (than PV) and opportunities for thermal energy storage, which could help CSP operate as baseload generation. CSP could be a suitable technology for China’s large-scale solar energy bases,particularly if it is coupled with low water-use and storage technologies.

Although wind turbine design is mature for onshore deployment, there remain opportunities to design wind turbines for offshore applications that are resilient to storms and typhoons. Other technologies, particularly hydrokinetic (ocean, wave and tidal) technologies, require further development but exhibit promise as locally available baseload generation options. Finally, a unified intelligent electronic control and communication system overlaid on the entire electricity delivery infrastructure would enhance the viability and continued expansion of renewable electricity—and all other electricity as well.

As both countries continue and accelerate the build out of renewablepower generation facilities, it would be highly beneficial if a mechanism canbe established to rapidly exchange information. Although learning and cost reductions have already been achieved from deployment in the United States, the rapid growth of renewable energy projects in China is likely to expand learning opportunities. China is now moving ahead of the United States in terms of offshore wind development and has plans to begin deploying next generation 5 megawatt (MW) wind turbines. Readily available information on these developments could enhance technology evolution and make renewable technologies more accessible globally, especially in developing nations.

In addition, joint efforts could include the analysis of distributed PV options at a regional level (e.g., metropolitan areas) for both countries. A stronger focuson deploying distributed PV could encourage rapid reduction of balance ofsystem cost and make the overall system more cost effective. China is a world leader in integrating solar thermal technologies for direct use in buildings, and there are lessons from this experience that could transfer to building-integrated PV. Regional analyses would help optimize PV to best meet electricity demand, particularly peak demand, and take advantage of existing electrical distribution infrastructure.

To a large extent, major deployment of renewable power generation isconstrained by location and intermittency issues. These issues have technical solutions that impose additional costs which, if applied to individual renewables projects, greatly affects their cost-competitiveness vis-à-vis conventional generation. Both the United States and China are making sizeable public investments (greater than $7 billion each for 2010) in next-generation grid technologies, with China spending nearly 10 times that amount ($70 billion from its economic recov-

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

ery package) on new high-voltage transmission infrastructure. China and theUnited States will need to transform power delivery systems to accommodateand integrate large amounts of variable-output renewable electric power.Specific issues that deserve attention are grid stability, load management,system flexibility including MW-scale multiple-hour storage, and compatibility with an electrified transportation infrastructure.

Environmental Impacts

Environmental and public health benefits, including reduced GHG emissions, are a primary motivation for moving to renewable power sources. Life cycle assessment is a valuable method for broadly comparing environmental impacts of alternative electricity generating technologies, and identifying where improvements are most likely to pay off. Life cycle GHG emissions benefits of most renewable technologies are high. Land use is a significant issue with some renewable energy technologies, especially as deployment grows further. Increasing system efficiencies and operating lifetimes will reduce environmental impacts for all renewable power technologies. In addition, it is critical that both countries apply and enforce regulations to ensure that waste products of renewable energy equipment manufacturing, particularly those from silicon PV panels, are minimized and handled properly.

Research is needed to better understand impacts of renewable power installation development on plants and wildlife and to develop effective methods to mitigate these impacts. Land-use impacts can be reduced by focusing on previouslydeveloped sites, co-occupation with other land uses, military and governmentsites, and emphasizing distributed generation technologies to minimize needfor transmission. Renewable power development will need to be restricted in some areas with sensitive ecosystems, or high cultural or scenic values; public involvement is valuable for helping to identify these areas. Water consumption is a major issue for all thermo-electric generating technologies, including solar thermal and biomass combustion. The United States and China would benefitfrom efforts to further improve the cost effectiveness and efficiency of lowwater-use cooling systems to help expand their utilization.

Policy, Deployment, and Market Infrastructure

The national governments in China and the United States, and various U.S. state governments, have established goals, mandates, and subsidies for production of electricity from renewable energy, although the levels and methods of subsidies, targets, and implementation mechanisms differ. At a national level, Chinese renewable policy is characterized primarily by “outcome-based goals” set at the national level (e.g., 15 percent of total electrical generation from non-fossil [nuclear and renewable] energy by 2020), and provincial or local incentives

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

to support manufacturing facilities. U.S. renewable policy is characterized by a greater focus on advancing specific technologies, such as wind, at the national level with market outcomes being encouraged at the state level (primarily through a renewal portfolio standard [RPS]).

The most prominent national policy approach for renewable energy in both China and the United States has been price support, both direct and indirect. U.S. subsidies have been primarily in the form of tax breaks for producers and consumers, and have been effective in driving specific market and technology development. Chinese subsidies, primarily government-set pricing and, on the local level, low electricity rates, have been effective in driving manufacturing development. In part because of China’s manufacturing taxation policy and price control, China has captured a higher market share of renewable energy-associated manufacturing, particularly in the solar PV market and increasingly more in the wind energy sector as well. In less than a decade, China has emerged as a world-leader in manufacturing of renewable power technologies and has linked this sector’s development to its overall national strategy for economic growth.

Both countries set subsidy values specific to particular resources (wind, solar, etc.). Subsidy values, generally driven more by specific policy goals and objectives, remain difficult to justify by real costs of production from competingsupply resources. Development of renewables has suffered because the costsof externalities, particularly the impact of GHG emissions, are not reflectedin current energy prices. In the United States, renewable energy investment has suffered during periods of suspended subsidy, demonstrating the importance of price support in an emerging renewable energy market, both for technology development as well as manufacturing capacity investments. For the United States, consistent national-level support, in the form of longer-term production tax credits or a national RPS, would send a clearer signal and reduce risk for potential investors in manufacturing.

Both countries would greatly benefit from a better understanding of specific government entities’ capabilities and responsibilities in implementing renewable energy plans and from better coordination across agencies. In the United States, multiple regulatory agencies are often responsible for overlapping areas, creating uncertainty and delay for renewable project applicants. In China, renewable energy goals have lacked clear enforcement mechanisms (e.g., assuring that wind power installations are actually operating), and many support policies would benefit from broader stakeholder engagement upfront and throughout development of the resource.

As both countries attempt to make a transition to a clean energy economy, deployment issues will come to the fore. Material constraints (from inputs like rare earth metals to construction equipment like lattice-boom cranes) may hamper some development in the short run. Workforce requirements (skilled manufacturers, installation technicians, and equipment operators) must also be addressed if these technologies are to be widely deployed. Operating experience will become

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

a valuable tool—utility and grid operators in both countries have much togain from sharing their experiences in integrating and managing largershares of renewable power generation.

Feedback to downstream market participants, including manufacturers, equipment installers and utility operators can be critical for reducing overall costs of renewable power generation. Both countries could benefit from programs tocapture performance data from renewable energy technologies operating inthe field and the distribution of the data throughout the supply chain. China’s renewable power market could experience a more rapid evolution by establishing more formal and informal mechanisms to capture this organizational learning.

Consistent and supportive policies would help the developing industry in both countries, but over the long-term renewable power developers will need to focus on becoming cost-competitive with fossil fuels. Financing will be attracted by a competitive levelized cost of energy (LCOE) or total cost of ownership. Project developers could begin placing value on the risk reduction attributes of renewable energy sources, notably the uncertainties of fossil-fuel prices and the threat of emissions regulation, when evaluating investments in new power generation.

Toward a Sustainable Energy Economy

The scale and diversity of the energy system should not be underestimated, in terms of existing infrastructure and how pervasive it is throughout both countries’ economies. Meeting electricity demand sustainably is an important driver for renewable power development, but it is not the only one. Manufacturing, deploying, and operating renewable power generators also represent potential new pillars of economic growth, something that China is embracing more rapidly than the United States.

As both countries endeavor to integrate renewable energy technologies into society, there is an opportunity for enhanced U.S.-Chinese cooperation in areas that will have medium- to long-term impacts. Much of this may not be on renewable power generation technologies themselves, but on the key “enablers” that could form part of a sustainable energy economy. Examples include developing urban areas that maximize use of renewable energy and electrifying transportation infrastructure to enable optimal vehicle charging behavior, generation resource optimization, and reduced energy-related emissions from motorized transport.

In the United States, clean energy research is carried out at a variety of government and academic institutions, but the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) performs the integration of various renewable energy RD&D efforts into a coherent national overview. In China, the National Energy Administration, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and other ministries, have established a number of national research centers and laboratories working in the renewable energy sector. Given the geographic distribution of renewable resources, having a distributed network of affiliate research institutions has some value. However,

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

China could better leverage its existing research infrastructure and avoidduplicating efforts by establishing an institution with primary responsibilityfor coordinating research activities in renewable energy.

Although the United States and China have recently increased investments in energy R&D, both countries are severely underinvesting in clean energyRD&D, which will make it difficult to achieve goals for 2050 and beyond. Consistent, long-term public investments in clean energy RD&D will send a clearer signal to private industry and should leverage more industry investment in both applied research and commercialization.

Platforms for Future Cooperation

As identified throughout this report, there are several reasons for both countries to harness their renewable resources. From an international perspective, climate change presents an additional driver. Both China and the United States have three main options to reduce GHG emissions in the energy sector: (1) reducing emissions from coal-based power, (2) promoting energy efficiency and conservation, and (3) developing renewables and other low carbon sources of energy. For decades, both countries have cooperated in these three areas, through governmental and nongovernmental channels. Given the scale of the climate challenge, there is now an additional impetus to continue and even enhance this sort of collaboration.

The United States and China have a history of bilateral cooperation on renewable energy technologies and policy dating back to 1979, including the 1995 Protocol for Cooperation in the Fields of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Technology Development and Utilization between the U.S. Department of Energy and several Chinese ministries. Official bilateral cooperation on renewable energy has suffered, however, both from a lack of consistent funding aswell as insufficient high-level political support and commitment. Concerns about industrial and economic competition are often a barrier to scientific and technology cooperation between the United States and China.

The U.S.-China Presidential Summit in Beijing in November 2009 resulted in a significant set of new agreements on joint energy and climate cooperation between the two countries, which if implemented effectively could serve as a platform for enhanced cooperation on renewable energy. The proposed Renewable EnergyPartnership includes several project activities that could integrate many of therecommendations detailed in this report, including technology road mapping,deployment solutions, subnational partnerships, grid modernization, R&D inadvanced technologies, and public-private engagement. Such engagement would be most effective if a sustained public-private forum were established with a multiyear commitment for ongoing communication. In addition, the forum could help facilitate new partnerships by coordinating participants from both sides and act as a clearinghouse for project information and funding or investment opportunities.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Important areas for cooperation that are not included in existing partnerships and should be the topic of future cooperation include joint technology development and demonstration efforts for advanced renewable energy technologies. Subnational cooperation should be further developed, based on resource profiles, allowing states/provinces in both countries to work together in advancing their renewable energy goals (examples include Colorado-Qinghai and Hawaii-Hainan). In addition, the development of a personnel exchange program, through government-sponsored fellowships that would involve short visits of U.S. and Chinese researchers and grid and power plant operators to each other’s countries, would foster more organizational learning in the fields of renewable power development and grid integration and would help to promote understanding and trust in the years to come.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Specific recommendations have been limited to those that the committees judge to be most likely to accelerate the pace of deployment, increase cost-competitiveness, or shape the future market for renewable energy. They are also, in the committees’ estimation, pragmatic and achievable. The committees recognize that implementing these recommendations will often involve more than one entity. While recommendations 1-7 are geared toward enhanced bilateral cooperation, recommendations 8-10 are country-specific. In addition to the 10 recommendations presented here, 5 additional recommendations are presented at the end of the full report chapters.

Recommendation 1

To ensure that existing China-U.S. partnerships are utilized most effectively, a stable stream of funding must be committed to their support. Activities should build upon existing cooperative activities between U.S. and Chinese experts and foster additional subnational cooperation on implementation issues.

Recommendation 2

The United States and China should establish a comprehensive base for official bilateral energy cooperation, including (1) basic research in fields that can contribute to future breakthroughs in renewable energy technologies; (2) joint strategic studies advising policy makers; (3) joint research and development in advanced renewable energy technologies; (4) joint demonstrations of pre-commercial technologies, and (5) sharing of best practices in regional implementation, policy making, planning, operations, and management.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Recommendation 3

China and the United States should collaborate on mapping integrated resource and development options at regional scales. Such multi-resource maps and evaluation can help to identify options for distributed generation, potential resource constraints (e.g., water availability for thermoelectric power), and least cost routes for needed transmission.

Recommendation 4

China and the United States should cooperate on defining the needs and requirements to transform power delivery systems to accommodate and integrate large amounts of variable-output renewable electric power. Such cooperation should address technical challenges to maintaining reliability, informational needs for regional planners and utility operators, and the “all-in” costs of integrating a high penetration of wind and solar power into the grid.

Recommendation 5

China and the United States should cooperate in developing large-scale (>50 MW) physical energy storage systems. Both countries have experience with pumped hydro and are currently investigating options to create additional capacity, which could directly benefit large wind and solar farms. The United States could also work with China to develop and demonstrate a compressed air energy storage system (CAES) in China, which currently has no experience with utility-scale CAES.

Recommendation 6

Scientists and engineers in both countries should work together to solve key technical challenges in waste treatment and recycling of components. Opportunities include reducing or reusing silicon tetrachloride and other toxic byproducts of polysilicon production, and recycling PV panels and wind turbine blades.

Recommendation 7

Cognizant organizations in China and the United States, including government agencies, international standards organizations, and professional societies, should collaborate on developing technical standards and certification mechanisms for renewable energy technologies for: (1) product performance and manufacturing quality control and (2) standard grid interconnection for both distributed, customer-sited resources and whole, central station resources. The United States has experience with developing standards through the National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and professional

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

societies, and there is an opportunity for closer U.S.-Chinese interaction on efforts to establish voluntary international standards through the IEEE.

Recommendation 8

The United States should consider conducting a multiagency strategic assessment of U.S. renewable energy manufacturing capabilities, in alignment with U.S. innovation activities, to determine where additional capacities should be promoted. Financial support should be considered to expand the manufacturing base for existing and near-term deployment needs through the research and demonstration of process improvements and efficiencies and the establishment of mechanisms to share the risk of private-sector investment in building new manufacturing capacity. In addition, targeted public/private risk-sharing programs should be considered to move technologies from concept through to manufacturing.

Recommendation 9

China should establish national facilities with capabilities to test performance and safety characteristics of complete renewable power systems and their subcomponents. Examples include testing PV systems to UL1 standards or evaluating the Power Curve from a small wind turbine.

Recommendation 10

China should conduct a nationwide inventory of research centers and their capabilities in various aspects of renewable energy and related fields. Based on assessed capabilities, some facilities could be designated as technical centers of excellence in their major competencies. One option is to integrate some of the existing entities and to establish a research institute, under the National Energy Administration, that is responsible for the renewable energy sector. A new institution would not need to be the center of excellence for all technologies, but for the integration of technologies and understanding of the RD&D pipeline from resource base through to commercialization. It could also be a facility for investing in capital equipment that is otherwise too costly for individual research centers.

THE ROAD AHEAD

The United States and China are entering a pivotal period where they will be both collaborators and competitors on critical global challenges and major participants in the marketplace. Effectively connecting their respective

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

capabilities and experience holds promise for accelerating progress in both countries and could make these technologies more accessible globally. The United States and China will continue to pursue national priorities of economic development and energy security, and there will be ongoing multilateral dialogues on ways to mitigate climate change. As both countries increasingly acknowledge, their leadership and cooperation on renewable energy development will be key to addressing these challenges.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

Suggested Citation:"Summary." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. The Power of Renewables: Opportunities and Challenges for China and the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12987.

The United States and China are the world's top two energy consumers and, as of 2010, the two largest economies. Consequently, they have a decisive role to play in the world's clean energy future. Both countries are also motivated by related goals, namely diversified energy portfolios, job creation, energy security, and pollution reduction, making renewable energy development an important strategy with wide-ranging implications. Given the size of their energy markets, any substantial progress the two countries make in advancing use of renewable energy will provide global benefits, in terms of enhanced technological understanding, reduced costs through expanded deployment, and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to conventional generation from fossil fuels.

Within this context, the U.S. National Academies, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), reviewed renewable energy development and deployment in the two countries, to highlight prospects for collaboration across the research to deployment chain and to suggest strategies which would promote more rapid and economical attainment of renewable energy goals.

Main findings and concerning renewable resource assessments, technology development, environmental impacts, market infrastructure, among others, are presented. Specific recommendations have been limited to those judged to be most likely to accelerate the pace of deployment, increase cost-competitiveness, or shape the future market for renewable energy. The recommendations presented here are also pragmatic and achievable.

Welcome to OpenBook!

You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.